Month: July 2008

I was thinking how that senitiment seems to be driving my desire to learn all I can about bird banding and start my own banding project… I decided to create a whole blog just about my birding stuff… This is weird, because, as many of you may already know, my passion for birds has been a long time coming… I wrote an article a while back called “Confessions of a Reluctant Birder” that described my gradual entry into the world of birds. As I re-read that article I decided its title was the perfect title for my new blog.

To get it up and running fast, I copied all bird banding posts from here to there. But, there are two new posts over there that do not exisit here…

I hope you’ll keep visiting here for my general nature posts… AND I hope you will also visit my new one:

Finding a Sharp-shinned Hawk in the net was certainly thrilling. But when you consider what Sharpies eat, it wasn’t really a surprise… Last Saturday, I was truly surprised by this bird. See if you recognize it:

An American Woodcock! Whoa! Never expected that!

American Woodcocks, also known as Timberdoodles, are probably most well-known for their springtime courting dance. Monarch wrote about it and included a video (dark – but cool because you can hear the sounds). Click here to see (hear) it. And if you have a copy of Aldo Leopold’s book A Sand County Almanac, read the essay on Woodcocks… it’s brilliant!

The Woodcock is a strange bird. You’ll find it with the sandpipers in your field guide. But you’ll have to go to the woods, not the beach, to find it outside. It’s beak is long and flexible. In the following photo, J had pried the bill open a bit to try to get a peek at the “teeth” and tongue.

I wish I had gotten a picture of what happened next! When J removed his fingers, the upper bill curved, then straightened! Woodcocks poke in the dirt with these long flexible bills probing for earthworms. Their ability to manipulate the end of the bill undoubtedly helps in extracting tasty treats from deep in the soil.

The coloring of a Woodcock makes them excellent at hiding on the forest floor. Many hikers have been startled when one suddenly rises just where a hiking boot was about to tread.

This was a big bird and a strong flier. Tom and J had to work together to band it. First they had to determine the appropriate size band by using a leg gauge.

Once banded, the poor thing had to endure the Bird Paparozzi. I’ll bet nearly a hundred photos were taken, many of them by me!

“They” say that there are no blue feathers. That is, there are no feathers that contain blue pigment. When our brains tell us that we have seen a blue bird, it is the result of physics and a trick of the light… reflection? refraction? I dunno… very complicated.

Whatever the science, it is always thrilling to see an Indigo Bunting! My Sibley’s field guide tells me that Indigo Buntings are “common in any open brushy area, including weedy fields and hedge-rows, with trees nearby.” The Cornell All-About-Birds website further explains that the Indigo Bunting is “a bird of old fields and roadsides” and that it “prefers abandoned land to urban areas, intensely farmed areas, or deep forests.”

Both descriptions fit the CLDC bird banding site quite well and we saw what must be a family of buntings on Saturday.

I love how the Cornell website lists “Cool Facts” for each species. Here are the two that intrigued me the most about Indigo Buntings:

The Indigo Bunting migrates at night, using the stars for guidance. It learns its orientation to the night sky from its experience as a young bird observing the stars.

Experienced adult Indigo Buntings can return to their previous breeding sites when held captive during the winter and released far from their normal wintering area.

At first, I thought I might have to cancel the program. Only 4 kids signed up. I sent postcards to past Day Campers who were now old enough. I called the 4 registered and asked them to invite friends. Miraculously, the week before the program, the van was full. Nine boys for Teen Treks. All boys. Hmm…

I’m the mother of daughters and a lifetime Girl Scout leader. I know what to do with girls. I admit, I was a little nervous when I saw the roster. I have to say, though, this was a great week and those boys are really great kids. They were polite, had great senses of humor… and best of all… even though they explored some potentially dangerous places, they used good sense and safety… at least while I could see them.

Holly and I were group leaders for four days of adventures. We visited:

What do you do with a farm that has become unproductive or unprofitable? Larry Griffis had an idea after visiting Italy and seeing the way sculpture was incorporated into landscapes and cityscapes. So he returned home to create the United States’ first sculpture park in Cattaraugus County, Western New York State.

I’ll show you some pictures… But I can tell you right now, pictures simply will not do the place justice. If you will be anywhere near Western New York, give yourself a treat and visit in person.

“You never know what you’ll find next. And once you find it, you’re not always sure what it is.” That’s what my husband said recently during a visit to Griffis Sculpture Park.

There are reportedly over 250 statues by over 100 artists on this property which is split into two sections. The portion off of Rohr Hill Road can be visited free of charge. The Miller Valley Road entrance has signs encouraging you to use the honor system with regard to the suggested donation of $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors. Even the donation box is a piece of art!

When I visited again this week with a van load of teens, we stuffed some bucks into the yellow box, then entered and took these pictures:

Unfortunately, the official website for the park seems to be in a state of transition and incompleteness. But with persistence, you can find the place: